1920's horror films

[primate]

hi all

i'm a promoter looking to put on some bands later this year, projecting some old 1920's horror films and using a VJ to do something quite special with the clips

someone told me that 1920's films are not subject to the copyright restrictions you get on newer films - does anyone know if this is true?

[deepvisual]

probably not.

the original copyright on mickey mouse ran out after 13 years.
since then hollywood has constantly lobbied to have the law changed.
now the rights to mickey mouse will never expire.
this is probably true for all cinema products.

and DNA.

[AV3]

If you want old films that are copyright free, try the Prelinger Archive. They are not horror films, but there are some very crazy films in there that are quite funny to project.

http://www.archive.org/details/prelinger

Hope that helps,
AV3

www.av3.co.uk (http://www.av3.co.uk)

[evomedia]

Hollywood films are subject to same copyright as all moving images, I remember the copyright is something like 70 years after the death of the director.

[hamageddon]

http://www.openflix.com/information/US-copyright.php
and
http://www.openflix.com/information/non-US-copyright.php

here's a nice overview for horror flix supposed to be in the public domain
http://www.publicdomaintorrents.com/nshowcat.html?category=horror
with download links.

but in the end i'd rather spend some bucks on a box like that
http://www.horrormovies.com/product_info.php/products_id/802
usally the same stuff as above

[VGA]

Sample whatever you want and use it.
Maybe someone will try to sue you!
Fuckin' A!

[KillingFrenzy]

Here's the skinny.
Many of the original horror films have now come into the public domain.
This does not, however, mean that you can go to your local video store and rent Metropolis and play it for public exhibition, or get a dvd copy and use it however you like for sampled performance.
That's because people can copyright/own reproduction and exhibition rights to a particular transfer/distribution.
So, there are a ton of releases of Nosferatu for example. Even though the film itself is technically public domain, any of those versions (most with different scores, and often assembled from multiple sources in a unique manner) are copyrighted by the company that puts out the dvd.
So, if you really wanted to do it "right" you'd need to get an actual copy of the film and do your own transfer. (a friend of mine did this with Nosferatu and worked with a local small orchestra to do showings) or find a transferred source that has loose ownership, such as ones posted on archive.org. There actually are some horror films on there, just do a little digging.

[hamageddon]

Here's the skinny.
So, there are a ton of releases of Nosferatu for example. Even though the film itself is technically public domain, any of those versions (most with different scores, and often assembled from multiple sources in a unique manner) are copyrighted by the company that puts out the dvd.

technically u're right, but after cutting and processing who is really able
(or willing) to determine which distribution the source material originally came from?

[hamageddon]

Here's the skinny.
... find a transferred source that has loose ownership, such as ones posted on archive.org. There actually are some horror films on there, just do a little digging.

right here (http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=mediatype%3Amovies%20AND%20collec tion%3Afeature_films%20AND%20%2Fmetadata%2Fsubject %3A%22Horror%22)
same stuff as on publicdomaintorrents, less movies tho